It’s only in the squalid world of football that an insult could earn you £5m

WHAT compensation would you seek if you were called a ‘daughter of a whore’? You’d be hurt. You might retaliate. You might even lose your cool. But you wouldn’t expect to be paid £5million by way of redress.

Yet that is the incredible amount which has reputedly been paid to Dr Eva Carneiro, who says she was called a ‘daughter of a whore’ in Portuguese by manager Jose Mourinho when she rushed on to the pitch to treat an injured player against his wishes during a Chelsea match last August.

By coming to the aid of Chelsea player Eden Hazard, Dr Carneiro temporarily removed him from the game during the final minutes when Chelsea were straining every sinew to score a winner against Swansea. Her intervention sent the highlystrung Mourinho berserk.

Actually, he claims he called her a ‘son of a bitch’ in Portuguese, a phrase he had been shouting throughout the match, as is his wont. For some reason the foulmouthed ‘Special One’, as he ludicrously anointed himself, is regarded in some circles as being a cut above most football managers.

Daughter of a whore or son of a bitch: it doesn’t make a great deal of difference. To hurl either phrase at a woman who was trying to do her job is inexcusably rude and possibly sexist. But on which planet in the universe is such a slur worth £5 million?

Enter the crazy world of modern Premier League football which is awash with money and grossly overpaid stars, and where, despite attempts to involve more women, male chauvinism evidently still rules. This is a case which shines a light into the squalid state of the Beautiful Game.

However boorish Mourinho was, I’d say the true measure of damages was much closer to five pounds than £5 million. Dr Carneiro appears to be a robust woman of the world, who must have heard some pretty colourful things in her time, and it is hard to imagine she suffered huge distress, even if one takes into account her subsequent ‘punishment’ of being banned from the bench and training sessions and the team hotel.

But Chelsea, being owned by the Russian mega-oligarch Roman Abramovich, elected to throw a lot of money at her, offering £1.2 million before an employment tribunal scheduled for earlier this week.

Threat

Dr Carneiro had turned down this princely sum, and threatened to make ‘scandalous’ sexism allegations during the tribunal. Faced with this threat, the Chelsea camp capitulated, and produced their much improved offer. Mourinho returned to Manchester United, where he was recently appointed manager at a reported annual salary of £15 million.

People in the real world can only gasp in disbelief at these grotesque sums of money. Dr Carneiro, a mere sports doctor, was paid £286,000 a year, and according to Chelsea sought an increase to £400,000 following her bust-up with Mourinho. Many distinguished hospital consultants are paid far less than these amounts.

Why doesn’t the general public, which rightly takes exception to undeserving ‘fat cats’ in the commercial sector, care more about the even greater sums lavished on players and football managers, many of whom regularly underperform and still cash their gigantic pay cheques?

I believe it is obscene to pay £5million to a woman for the relative trifle of affronted dignity. It betrays a lack of judgment and an inversion of sound moral values. It shows how far standards of decency have been corrupted in the modern, money-dominated game.

Consider that a soldier who risks life his fighting for his country — rather than kicking a ball around a field — will receive less than £100,000 from HM Government if he loses a leg below the knee on active service, or is rendered totally deaf.

Dr Carneiro is rewarded with 50 times that amount for being on the receiving end of a vulgar tirade from an egomaniac football manager who, by the by, labours under the absurd misconception that he is witty and amusing.

I know, I know. It’s the market, and billions of pounds are pouring into football and ruining it, principally because millions of people will pay to watch it on television. But must we defend the market when it distorts basic values, and disfigures a game that was once reasonably honest?

That, of course, is why last season many of us were drawn so enthusiastically to the unexpected success of Leicester City, whose entire team was assembled for less than the cost of a single top player at one of the leading clubs.

For a brief, glorious moment it seemed that money in football was not everything that counted after all.

Old-fashioned virtues such as hard work and commitment and deep attachment to a particular club mattered as well — perhaps even more.

Alas, that illusion is being quickly shattered as Leicester’s most successful players are being picked off by richer rivals, and offered even greater rewards.

Despite being fashioned by the club from a non-league player into the outstanding footballer that he now is, Jamie Vardy is considering deserting his team for the allurements of Arsenal — for a reported £120,000 a week.

Virtue

But then loyalty is another old-fashioned virtue which is not taken very seriously in the world of modern football, where greed is good, and the thing that matters above all to the majority of players is the size of their pay packets.

I’m afraid these overpaid stars represent abysmal role models for young children — and that is before taking into account the gross sexual behaviour that some of them indulge in. The corrosive message they send out is this: what matters above all other values is money.

This world is, of course, also sexist, as Dr Carneiro’s experience attests, though it is difficult to see her as a pathetic victim.

The football authorities are doing their utmost to attract women, but they can’t disguise the reality that in the cash-rich game they aren’t really welcome.

In fact, it is hard to think of any women who have made it in the upper echelons of the football, though the BBC is always trying to interest us in the women’s game without much success.

Karren Brady (aka Baroness Brady, a Tory peer) who is vice-chairman of West Ham FC is one example.

She is a successful businesswoman, and the protégée of David Sullivan, co-owner of the club and a former pornographer.

The only other prominent woman in football who comes to mind is our friend Dr Eva Carneiro.

One can’t help admiring her chutzpah for milking Chelsea for all she can, and for taking on its former manager. But can anyone pretend she is an ideal role model or admirable ambassador for football?

On Saturday, Euro 2016 begins. England will be there, with Wales and Northern Ireland – though Scotland failed to qualify.

Like millions of others, I will watch the Euro matches. It is still just possible to believe that these international games represent the best of the sport we love.

But I know in my heart that money has ruined the game, and that the values of modern football are corrupting our children and our culture.